Helping your Child Lead a Healthy life with Cerebral Palsy

Every Kid Healthy Week April 2018

- Helping your Child Lead a Healthy life with Cerebral Palsy

  

Cerebral Palsy (CP) is a term that encompasses several neurological disorders that permanently affect balance, muscle coordination, and movement. Typically contracted before birth, it affects every part of a child's ability to function and interact with others. Some infants display only mild forms of CP and are able to function fairly well, attend school and make friends among their peer age group. A cerebral palsy diagnosis can have a devastating effect on parents and siblings, including feelings of guilt over potential causes, and due to sibling frustration over the attention required by a child with CP.

For April and Every Kid Healthy Week, it’s important to discuss chronic life-long conditions like cerebral palsy. Developmental Disabilities like CP present serious challenges for parents and children. Understanding the condition helps embrace and navigate through some of the challenges associated with CP, and can also help parents of newborns take preventative measures against a cerebral palsy diagnosis. Please read on to understand more about life as it is with this condition...

Causes

The first step towards prevention is understanding what causes cerebral palsy. There is no definitive cause with most children who have CP. Contributing factors include oxygen deprivation during birth and the failure of the brain to develop properly in the womb. Brain damage is known to occur with certain maternal diseases and illnesses, using illegal drugs, genetic factors and events that occur during childbirth. Experts with Cerebral Palsy Guidance (https://www.cerebralpalsyguidance.com) recommend that an expectant mother get regular prenatal care, avoid the use of illegal drugs, minimize exposure to illness and discuss options for the course of action the doctor may take during delivery.

Onset of Cerebral Palsy can take place during infancy and early childhood due to accidents and trauma that may occur. Certain illnesses, such as meningitis, can affect and damage the brain as well as cause CP. 

Diagnosis and Symptoms

This is a bit different, but understanding what a diagnosis means can again assist with future challenges to come.

Diagnosing CP involves motor skills testing, neurological testing and obtaining a complete history and genetic background from the parents. Symptoms and manifestations of CP include, but are not limited to, the following examples. 

• Floppiness/stiffness — Lack of muscle tone makes holding the head up or sitting straight very difficult to do. The opposite may occur, with rigid muscle tone making their extremities stiff and hard to move. It is important to note that this is not a muscle disorder, but rather a result of signals sent from the brain that muscles interpret.

• Feeding problems – there may be nutritional issues when the baby's ability to coordinate sucking and swallowing is impaired.

• Movement coordination difficulty – the toddler may exhibit what appears to be clumsiness, in their inability to control arm and leg movements, or coordinate these movements.

• Developmental delays – the child may not crawl, sit, stand or walk at the same age as most children.

Types of Cerebral Palsy

  

Researchers at Harvard University report several types of CP exist, but Spastic CP is the most common type. The term spastic refers to stiffness in the arms and legs that remains resistant to stretching or bending, and is present when the child is awake and asleep. Other types that are less common are Dyskinetic or athetoid cerebral palsy, Ataxic cerebral palsy and Mixed, which consists of a combination of two of the subtypes listed.

Treatment and Prognosis

Treatment includes occupational, speech and physical therapy, surgical intervention, medications, assistive technology and individualised treatment and therapy plans. Providing healthy nutrition is highly beneficial to the child and can help minimise symptom severity and improve the overall outlook for the child's health.

  

Although some children with CP have mental health related issues, many have average to above average intelligence and with early treatment intervention are able to lead functional lives within their community. Currently, there is no cure for CP, but experts at the National Institute of Health report researchers are trying to find answers for specific causes of CP, as well as following treatment outcomes to help families make informed decisions about the best course of treatment to pursue.

The importance and value of early treatment intervention cannot be overstated. The earlier treatment begins, the better chance the child has to lead a healthy, productive and active life with a lifespan no different from anyone else.

Regardless of type, medical professionals usually help parents navigate through lifelong challenges associated with some of the symptoms and treatment options mentioned above. While there’s no cure for conditions like cerebral palsy, there’s plenty of information on treatment and maintenance. Some of this can be found on the web. In honor of Every Kid Healthy week and the advocacy work of some great organizations like UCP and CPG, please help us spread the word by sharing some of this information on social media.